JPH10178624A - Video conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make the arrangement of a monitor free and also easy in a video conference system. SOLUTION: In one terminal A, communication controlling parts 14 and 15 receive multiplexed data that is sent from other terminals which are connected via a line C, a separating part 12 separates the received multiplexed data into a voice and an image, and a radio sending part 17 sends the separated image. As a result, in an image display device B that is accompanied with the terminal A and installed, a radio receiving part 18 receives the image that is sent by the part 17 and a monitor 6 outputs the received image. Then, it is possible to freely arrange the device B and to display and output the image within the range where the image sent from the part 17 can be received. Also, wiring working of a cable, etc., does not have to be performed when the device B is arranged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to transmitting and receiving multiplexed data including voice and image between a plurality of terminal devices connected by a line, and transmitting an image and a voice input by one terminal device to the other terminal device. Related to a video conference system that outputs a video conference.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, for example, ISDN (Integrated S
video conferencing by transmitting and receiving multiplexed data including audio and images using a line such as an ervice Digital Network). Systems are known.

An example of a system configuration of a video conference system will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of one side of the video conference system, and the other side has the same system configuration, so that it is not shown in the figure, and redundant description will be omitted. This video conference system is based on the ITU-T recommendation (International Telecommun
Recommendation by the Telecommunications Standardization Division of the Communication Union). And a terminal device a standardized to the H.320. The terminal device a is a DSU (Digital Service Uniform).
It is connected to ISDN line C via t).

A terminal device a is a camera 1 for inputting an image.
And NTSC (National Television System Committe
e) Convert image signals to CIF (Common Intermediate Format)
An NTSC / CIF converter 2 for converting to image data;
A video encoder 3 for compressing IF image data, a video decoder 4 for expanding compressed image data,
CIF · N for converting F image data to NTSC image signal
A TSC converter 5, a monitor 6 for displaying and outputting an image according to an NTSC image signal, a microphone 7 for inputting audio, a speaker 8 for outputting audio, and compressing the audio signal or converting the audio data into the original audio signal. Decompressing audio codec 9, delay device (lip sync) 10 for synchronizing audio with image, telematics device 11 for inputting and outputting information of a different type from audio and image, audio, image, etc. A multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 12 for multiplexing data relating to the information of the multiplexed or separated multiplexed data into audio, video, and other information; an interconnection procedure control unit 13 for controlling the multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 12; A network interface unit 14 for transmitting and receiving coded data, a network access control unit 15 for controlling the network interface unit 14, and an interconnection procedure control unit 13. A system control unit 16 for controlling the access control unit 15, and a.

[0005] One side of the video conference system inputs images and sounds, transmits multiplexed data including images and sounds to the other side, and receives multiplexed data including images and sounds from the other side. Output images and sounds. That is, an image is input from the camera 1 as an NTSC image signal, and audio is input from the microphone 7 as an audio signal. Then, the NTSC / CIF converter 2 converts the input NTSC image signal into CIF image data, and the video encoder 3 converts the CIF image data into H.264.
H.261 compression. Also, audio codec 9
Converts the audio signal into audio data, and the delay device 10 synchronizes the timing with the simultaneously input image. Then
The multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 12 multiplexes the encoded image and the audio data whose timing has been delayed, and the network interface unit 14 transmits the multiplexed data to the other side via the ISDN line C.

In addition to the operation described above, the multiplexed data transmitted from the other side via the ISDN line C is received by the network interface unit 14, and the received multiplexed data is received by the multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 12. The image data and the audio data are separated from the data. Next, the video decoder 4 expands the separated image data into CIF image data, the CIF / NTSC converter 5 converts the CIF image data into an NTSC image signal, and the monitor 6 displays and outputs an image according to the NTSC image signal. . In addition, the delay device 10 passes the separated audio data to the audio codec 9 in synchronization with the timing of the image, the audio codec 9 converts the audio data into an audio signal, and the speaker 8 outputs audio according to the audio signal.

In the above video conference system,
Terminal devices may be installed and used in large conference rooms,
At this time, there has been a problem that the monitor provided in the terminal device is difficult to see from a distance. For this reason, a plurality of monitors are provided, for example, a monitor is installed at a position where an image is easy to see for each individual or for each group, and an NTSC image signal is transmitted from the terminal device a as shown in FIG. The video signal is distributed to the
Image signals are distributed, image signals are supplied to a plurality of monitors, and images are displayed and output.

[0008]

However, as described above, in the conventional video conference system, when an image is displayed and output on a monitor, the image is transmitted by connecting a cable from a terminal device. In addition, when the installation location of the monitor is restricted or the layout is changed, a troublesome operation must be performed. In addition, as the number of connected monitors increases, it is necessary to provide more devices for distributing image signals, and there is a problem that the number of monitors to be used is limited, and display on the monitor by distributing image signals There is also a problem that the quality of the output image is deteriorated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and has as its object to provide a video conference system in which monitors can be freely and easily arranged.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, a video conference system according to the present invention comprises: a communication control unit for transmitting and receiving multiplexed data including voice and image; And a separation unit that separates an image and an image from each other, wherein a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a line, and the video and audio input by one terminal device are output by the other terminal device. An image display device for displaying and outputting an image to the device is provided, and the terminal device further includes a wireless transmission unit that transmits the image separated by the separation unit via a wireless transmission path; The display device includes a wireless receiving unit that receives the image transmitted by the wireless transmitting unit, and an image display unit that displays and outputs the received image.

[0011] In the above-described video conference system, in one terminal device, the communication control unit receives multiplexed data transmitted from another terminal device via a line, and the separation unit converts the received multiplexed data into audio. The image is separated into an image and the separated image is transmitted by the wireless transmission unit. As a result, in the image display device attached to the terminal device, the wireless receiving unit receives the image transmitted by the wireless transmitting unit, and the image display unit outputs the received image. Therefore, it is possible to freely arrange the image display device and display and display the image within a range where the image transmitted from the wireless transmission unit can be received. In addition, when arranging the image display device, it is not necessary to perform a wiring operation for cables and the like.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a video conference system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In addition, FIG.
It shows the system configuration of one side of the video conference system, and the other side has the same system configuration, so that it is not shown in the figure, and redundant description will be omitted. Also,
The same parts as those of the conventional example shown in FIG. 5 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and duplicate description will be omitted.

The video conference system includes a terminal device A and an image display device B for displaying and outputting an image to the terminal device A.
It is connected to ISDN line C via SU.

The terminal device A further includes a wireless transmission unit 17 for transmitting image data separated from multiplexed data via a wireless transmission path, in addition to the conventional terminal device a. The wireless transmission unit 17 includes a wireless control unit 17a that controls communication on a wireless transmission path, and a wireless unit 17b that transmits image data to the wireless transmission path.

The radio control section 17a converts the image data separated by the multiplexing / demultiplexing section 12 into a data format for a radio transmission path, and adds, for example, a code for synchronization at the time of communication, an error detection code, and the like. Then, it controls the radio unit 17b according to a procedure prescribed in advance for communication on the radio transmission path. The format of the image data separated by the multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 12 is, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, image data divided into transmission units, a file identifier “1” indicating image data, and It has a multi-frame format including a plurality of frames including an error correction code for error correction and a frame identifier used for frame synchronization. The format is image data output from the video encoder 3 and input to the video encoder 4. Image data to be processed.
The wireless unit 17b transmits data for a wireless transmission path including image data to the wireless transmission path under the control of the wireless control unit 17a.

The image display device B includes a radio receiver 18 for receiving image data transmitted from the terminal device, a video decoder 4 for expanding the received image data into CIF image data, and an NTSC analog signal for converting the CIF image data into analog signal. A CIF / NTSC converter 5 for converting to an image signal;
A monitor (image display unit) 6 for displaying and outputting an image in accordance with the image signal.

The wireless receiving section 18 includes a wireless section 18a for receiving image data from a wireless transmission path, and a wireless control section 18b for controlling communication on the wireless transmission path. Radio unit 1
8a receives the data for the wireless transmission path including the image data from the wireless transmission path under the control of the wireless control unit 18b. The wireless control unit 18b controls the wireless unit 18a in accordance with a predetermined procedure for communication on the wireless transmission path, and extracts image data from the data for the wireless transmission path received by the wireless unit 18a. At this time, an error correction process is performed on the transmitted data based on the error correction code. Here, the network interface unit 14 and the network access control unit 15 are communication control units described in claims.

The communication system in the wireless transmission path between the terminal device A and the image display device B includes, for example, a spread spectrum system and a PHS (Personal Handy).
phone System), PDC (Personal Digital Cellu)
lar) method, and the like.

The transmission rate required for the above-mentioned wireless transmission path is such that the image data separated from the multiplexed data to be transmitted on the wireless transmission path is H.264. 26
Since the image data is compressed in one system, p × 64 kbps (p is 1 to 30
At the value of H. 261 is set according to the compression method)
Can be transmitted without any problem if the transmission speed is equal to the transmission speed of p × 64 kbps plus the transmission speed required to transmit the small amount of data required for communication on the wireless transmission path. The transmission speed required for the wireless transmission path can be suppressed.

Next, the operation of the video conference system will be described. The same operations as those in the related art will not be described repeatedly, and different operations will be described. The multiplexed data transmitted from the other terminal device via the ISDN line 3 is received by the network interface unit 14, and the multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 12 converts the received multiplexed data into image data, audio data, and other information data. And the wireless transmission unit 1
7 transmits the separated image data via a wireless transmission path. As a result, in the image display device B, the wireless receiving unit 18
Receives the image data transmitted via the wireless transmission path,
The video decoder 4 expands the received image data into CIF image data, the CIF / NTSC converter 5 converts the CIF image data into an NTSC image signal, and the monitor 6 outputs an NTS image signal.
An image is displayed and output according to the C image signal.

As described above, the image transmitted from the other terminal device can be displayed and output to the image display device B without connecting a wiring such as a cable. Therefore, as long as a wireless transmission path can be secured, there is no need to consider wiring such as cables, and a monitor can be freely and easily installed. As shown in FIG. The number of monitors to be displayed and output is not limited. In addition, since an error correction code is added and transmitted in the wireless transmission path, a data error in the wireless transmission path can be corrected,
For example, even when transmission is performed to a plurality of monitors, it is possible to prevent image quality from deteriorating.

In the above-described embodiment, the terminal device A itself is provided with a monitor, but it is not always necessary to provide the terminal device with a monitor. In the above-described embodiment,
A line including an ISDN line was used as a line for connecting the terminal devices, but a line that is wired, wireless, or a combination of wired and wireless may be used, that is, a line that can transmit and receive multiplexed data. Should be fine.

In the above-described embodiment, the image display device is attached to a plurality of terminal devices of the video conference system, and the wireless transmission unit is provided for each of the terminal devices. The image display device may be attached to at least one terminal device of the conference system, and the terminal device may be provided with a wireless transmission unit.

In the above-described embodiment, the image signal of the NTSC system is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and PAL (Ph
An image signal of another method such as an ase alternating by line method may be used. In the above-described embodiment,
The compressed image data is transmitted to the image display device via a wireless transmission path.
An analog image signal such as an image signal may be transmitted via a wireless transmission path. In short, any signal or data capable of displaying an image on an image display device may be used. In the case of an analog image signal, If it is, there is no need to equip the image display device with devices such as a video decoder and a converter.

[0025]

As described above, in the video conference system according to the present invention, since the image is transmitted from the terminal device to the image display device for displaying and outputting the image via the wireless transmission path, wiring and the like are required. The image display device can be freely and easily arranged without considering the above.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a video conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a format of image data.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram for outputting a plurality of images in the video conference system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a video conference system according to a conventional example.

FIG. 5 is a system configuration diagram for outputting a plurality of images in a video conference system according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A, a... Terminal device, B... Image display device, C... ISDN line, 6... Monitor, 12... ..Radio transmitter, 18 ... Radio receiver,

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of terminal devices each including a communication control unit for transmitting and receiving multiplexed data including voice and image, and a separating unit for separating voice and image from the received multiplexed data via a line. A video conference system for outputting images and sounds input from one terminal device to the other terminal device, and an image display device for displaying and outputting an image to the terminal device. In addition, further provided with a wireless transmission unit that transmits the image separated by the separation unit via a wireless transmission path, the image display device, a wireless reception unit that receives the image transmitted by the wireless transmission unit, A video conference system, comprising: an image display unit that displays and outputs a received image.